Solar storm will make Northern Lights visible over Washington. Here’s when to look

If you live at a high latitude, you may be in for a treat from the cosmos tonight.

A solar storm is predicted to collide with the Earth tonight, potentially making the Northern Lights visible at a much lower latitude than usual, space weather officials say.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in an alert on Monday that the auroras may be seen as low as New York to Wisconsin to Washington state, as well as in other parts of the “northern tier” of the U.S., including northern Michigan and Maine.

The Northern Lights, or aurora borealis, appear when “electrons and protons around Earth are energized by solar disturbances” and “follow Earth’s magnetic field toward the North and South magnetic poles where they collide with atmospheric molecules,” producing the lustrous glow the Northern Lights are known for, the NOAA said.

The solar storm that may cause the Northern Lights to appear could also cause some satellite and power grid disruption, the NOAA said. However, the storm will likely be a G2 level storm on a 5-level scale where G5 is the strongest, Live Science reported. Only G4 storms and above are likely to trigger problems like widespread power outages, according to the NOAA.

Solar storms are a common type of space weather that arise from coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, which are large bubbles of plasma expelled by the sun, according to the NOAA. As many as four CMEs could be headed toward Earth now.